“Oh my God, do you know anything?” Jasmine asked.
I shook my head and fought off tears. “No. They won’t tell me. I’m not…”
“You’re not what?”
“Family.”
Anger filled Jasmine’s expression and she turned her gaze to the desk.
“How did you get here so fast?” I asked.
Her brows furrowed. “It’s nearly six-thirty, Lex. It took us two hours to get here.”
I turned my phone over in my hand, and saw she was right.
“Come on, Mom’s waving us over,” Jasmine said.
The moment I drew even with Trixie, she pointed at me, but her eyes were on the nurse. “You see her? She’s my son’s woman. If she needs to know something about him, you tell her.”
“It doesn’t work like that—”
Trixie leaned forward. “She’s family. They’re gettin’ married. Is there any update on when he’s gettin’ out of surgery?”
The comment about us getting married took me aback. Then Rafferty’s voice played in my mind.‘This accident opened my eyes.’
Him getting shot didn’t just open my eyes, it flung the doors open on my heart and mind like a horse breaking free from a barn.
“There should be an update any minute now. I’ll keep you posted,” the nurse said.
We trudged back to the bank of chairs where I’d been sitting.
Before I could sit down, Roll slung his arm along my shoulders. “Take a walk with me.”
“Oh, no. Whatever you’re gonna talk about I want to hear it,” Trixie said.
“No,” Roll said in an extremely firm tone.
I glanced up at him. “It’s okay—”
He shook his head, his shoulder-length hair swaying. “His mother doesn’t need to hear this.”
I shrugged. “There isn’t much to hear since I don’t know exactly what happened. I was in a room that was locked from the outside.”
“Excuse me,” Trixie said.
Roll’s lips pressed into a thin line before he blew out a defeated sigh. “That’s what I didn’t want them to hear.”
I quickly ran down the afternoon, and what I knew.
“Nate knows what happened, but he wasn’t able to leave the scene. My guess is that Porter shot Rafferty. Nate said he had to shoot Porter.”
‘Did Porter make it?” Trixie asked.
I shrugged. “Nate shot him in the leg. I think he’s okay, but I don’t give a damn about him.”
Jasmine patted the chair between her and Trixie. “Sit down.”
I settled in the seat. Jasmine rested her head on my shoulder and grabbed my hand.
